Facsimile systems are now being located in various public places, for example, airports and hotels, for use by the general public. Accordingly, a person who happens to be in an airport or hotel and who needs to send or receive a facsimile of a document (hereinafter referred to as sending a "facsimile") may now do so. A public facsimile system typically employs a broadcast mode which allows a person (user) to send a facsimile of a document to a number of different destinations identified by the user. In doing so, the public facsimile system places a telephone call to each such destination and transmits a facsimile of the user's document thereto. It can be appreciated that if the number of such destinations is appreciable, then it will take an appreciable amount of time for the public facsimile system to complete its task. It can also be appreciated that if a number of other users are waiting to use the public facsimile system, then the delay that arises as a result of the aforementioned broadcast may cause one or more of such other users to forgo using the public facsimile system. As such, the public facsimile system would lose revenue as a result of such nonuse.
As mentioned above, a public facsimile system may also be used to receive a facsimile of a document. Typically, a user who desires to receive a copy of a document via a public facsimile system first places a call to another person who has access to the document and then passes to the latter the telephone number of the public facsimile system. (In most instances, the telephone call may be placed via the public facsimile system.) Upon completing the call, the user then places the public facsimile system in a receive ready mode to await receipt of the intended transmission. The other person, in a conventional manner, may then transmit, via his/her facsimile machine, a copy of the desired document to the identified public facsimile system. The public facsimile system then prints and outputs a printed version of the received facsimile. It can be appreciated that, for whatever reason, the transmission of the facsimile could be delayed. If the delay is an appreciable amount of time, then the public user might be prompted to proceed to a public telephone in order to place a telephone call to the sender to ascertain the reason for the delay. It can also be appreciated that in such a situation the public facsimile system could receive the facsimile and output a copy thereof during the time that the user is placing the telephone call to the sender. As such, the copy could be intercepted by another person.